Home networks and private networks are widely known and used to create a private network context for groups of predetermined user equipment devices. Such private network context is typically implemented locally (both software and hardware), which local private network is then connected to the world wide web. In a private network context, users can easily share/retrieve data amongst each other, furthermore, data can be stored/synchronized at the network (for example via network attached storage devices), network and/or device usages can be controlled (for example parent control), services can be provided (for example climate control or smart TV control). These and other private network context functionalities are referred to as home services (although the invention is not limited to home environments as such). Because the private network context is implemented locally, only a predetermined group of user equipment devices can access the private network context, being the devices that are in the neighborhood (access range) of the network and the devices that have the required access data (passwords, . . . ). The latter ensures the security of the home network or private network.
A disadvantage of such home network and private networks is that devices can only access the network when in the neighborhood (access range) of the network. This can be solved by setting up private tunnels in the world wide web towards the home network or private network. Setting up of such tunnels is complex, and after setup a significant dataflow to and from the home network or private network is created.
Furthermore, it is a trend to virtualize home services by running home services elsewhere, for example in ‘the cloud’. Thereby ‘the cloud’ is typically understood to be one or multiple servers that are located somewhere (actually anywhere) the world wide web. Such virtualization of services has multiple advantageous. At first, the equipment that is installed locally can be much more simple. This allows updating the service without locally updating networking equipment. Particularly when a service is delivered by the cloud to multiple individual private networks, it is easier to update the cloud than to update each of the individual private networks.
In home services, the private context is created/obtained by connecting to the private network. When the home services are virtualized, an extra authentication step is required. This extra authentication step is inherent to the current implementation of the virtualized home services, and forms a burden for users. Furthermore, for each service (or group of services), a separate authentication step is provided.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the network system.